


Glow

by Emily (JustAround)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Not Beta Read, Not allowed to die, Penance - Freeform, Timeline disruption, alternative universe, white hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 16:31:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7809070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAround/pseuds/Emily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are always repercussions; Charles learns the fallout when someone attempts to disrupt the timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the the July Challenge at http://31daysoffandom.livejournal.com. This doesn't really fit into the X-Men movieverse timeline, but the Charles in my head is very much movie verse so I went with it. Not beta-ed.

When times were at their darkest, he always looked for a flash of white.  
  
Not the white of Storm’s mohawk, or the white of Miss Frost’s impeccable clothing.  No, Charles looked for a different white, one that seemed to have an inward glow, one that illuminated the woman to whom it belonged.  
  
It had been during an unexpected attack when he first saw her.  He, being young and arrogant, felt he would sense any attack coming, protect himself from any person who wished to harm him.  After all, a telepath as powerful as he would always hear an attack coming.  
  
Only.  
  
They caught him unaware, caught him on his search for mutants for the school he was planning on opening.  One moment he was using his mind to find the mutant he knew was nearby and the next he was on the ground, his chest red with blood as he fell to the ground, his body already going into shock.  He vainly reached out with his telepathy, searching for anyway to save himself.  
  
Instead, she appeared.  
  
He was dying when he felt gentle hands pressing on his chest, fingers covering his bleeding wound.  He blinked rapidly, as the rush of death and a strange white glow caused his eyes to go in and out of focus.  He could make out the outline of a person - a woman, whose hair seemed to be the source of the strange glow.  As she spoke, pulses of yellow and green erupted from her hands and he could feel the gaping wound in his chest begin to close.  
  
Begin to heal.  
  
_Who are you?_ He asked, reaching out with his mind, still unable to grasp what was happening.  
  
_Not a figment of your imagination_ , was the wry reply, and he could almost make out the hint of a smile on her lips.  Her hands moved away from his chest and he sat up, frowning as he looked around.  The world around him seemed frozen, the people who had attacked him not moving from their place.  In fact, the entire world seemed stuck at the moment he began to die.  Even the leaves that had been disturbed by his fall were still hovering in mid-air.  
  
“What is this place?” he asked, his voice filled with wonder.  “What type of mutant are you, to be able to stop time?”  
  
“Not a mutant,” she corrected.  “And think of this as a place in between time.”  
  
He looked at her sharply at that.  “In between time?”  
  
“You weren’t meant to die, not here, not yet,” she explained simply, her hair still glowing that same white.  “I was sent here to stop an unnatural alteration of the time line.”  
  
There was almost a sadness to her words, though he knew it had nothing to do with him.  Taking a step closer, he put a hand on her arm, the one that had healed him.  “Why have you been sent to do this?  It isn’t the first time you have stopped such a thing, is it?”  
  
“You’re as quick as the Powers said,” she admitted with a sad smile.  “It is my duty to fix any deviations the Powers That Be deem unnatural.  It is my penance, one that I will serve until they decide I am forgiven for my own actions.”  
  
“What could you have possibly done to deserve this fate?  To exist solely to fix problems?”  
  
She paused at that question, turning her head to look passed him, as if unable to meet his eyes.  “I forced my will upon nature, bringing a dead Champion back to life.  I ignored the rules of magic and created an imbalance that almost allowed my world to be destroyed.  Those are things not easily forgiven.”  
  
Charles could feel the heaviness of her words, could hear the pain her decisions had brought.  For a moment, he did not reply, as he knew there were no words to bring her comfort, bring her solace.  “What is your name, so I might know who to be thankful to for being alive?”  
  
“Willow,” she replied simply.  “My time here is over, for now.  You will be returned to your time.  Those that attempted to corrupt it will be dealt with.”  
  
“Thank you, Willow,” he said softly and even as he said the words, he could feel his body sinking back into the time moments before he was attacked.  He almost felt like he was watching the events as this time, he knew to beware of the coming attack and protect himself as needed.  It was over before it really began, this time.  His attackers were dealt with, the mutant he had felt found.  The task he set out to do was accomplished.  
  
But he was never the same, not really.  He knew she existed.  And every time things were at their worse, he watched for that white glow and hoped that Willow would someday be able to find her peace.


End file.
